Two-dimensional ferroelectric films

Authors

• Alexander V. Bune, University of Nebraska at Lincoln
• Vladimir M. Fridkin, Institute of Crystallography, Russian Academy of Sciences, MoscowFollow
• Stephen Ducharme, University of Nebraska at LincolnFollow
• Lev M. Blinov, Institute of Crystallography, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow
• Serguei P. Palto, Institute of Crystallography, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow
• Alexander V. Sorokin, Institute of Crystallography, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow
• S. G. Yudin, Institute of Crystallography, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow
• A. Zlatkin, Institute of Crystallography, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow

Document Type

Article

Date of this Version

2-26-1998

Comments

Published in Nature 391 (February 26, 1998), pp. 874-877; doi 10.1038/36069 Copyright © 1998 Nature Publishing Group. Used by permission. Publisher's version online at http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/36069 (requires subscription).

Abstract

Ultrathin crystalline films offer the possibility of exploring phase transitions in the crossover region between two and three dimensions. Second- order ferromagnetic phase transitions have been observed in monolayer magnetic films [1,2], where surface anisotropy energy stabilizes the two-dimensional ferromagnetic state at finite temperature [3]. Similarly, a number of magnetic materials have magnetic surface layers that show a second-order ferromagnetic–paramagnetic phase transition with an increased Curie temperature [4]. Ferroelectricity is in many ways analogous to ferromagnetism, and bulk-like ferroelectricity and finite-size modifications of it have been seen in nanocrystals as small as 250 Å in diameter [5], in perovskite films 100 Å thick [6] and in crystalline ferroelectric polymers as thin as 25 Å [7–10]. But these results can be interpreted as bulk ferroelectricity suppressed by surface depolarization energies, and imply that the bulk transition has a minimum critical size [11–13]. Here we report measurements of the ferroelectric transition in crystalline films of a random copolymer of vinylidene fluoride and trifluoroethylene just 10 Å (two monolayers) thick. We see a first-order ferroelectric phase transition with a transition temperature nearly equal to the bulk value, even in these almost two-dimensional films. In addition, we see a second first-order transition at a lower temperature, which seems to be associated with the surface layers only. The near-absence of finite-size effects on the bulk transition implies that these films must be considered as two-dimensional ferroelectrics.